YES!!!! (Blight of the Immortals)

[bert_the_turtle]

While all that is somewhat true, it still hints at a design philosophy that wants me to return often to admire the ads.

[Jordy...]

^^ I don't think this games is designed around adds.. at least I hope not.. The developer did mention though that perhaps, if he could find a better advertiser then google, all of this game will be free!

I have to say also, I'm not really feeling this game yet, it seems with strangers there will be a lack of teamplay.. and I don't get the benefits of fighting neutral towns as you can better only fight blighted towns..

[bert_the_turtle]

Well, if they are deliberately designing the game so you have to log in often to play well, they surely won't admit that And maybe it's not their intention. But it sure is the effect. Another example I just found: the Troll special ability. They can damage every army within six hours walking distance. Which means that if you want to use that ability offensively (right before you attack a city) or defensively (right before the enemy army knocks at your doors), you have at most a six hour window to do so. Not so bad, but it gets worse: EVERY army withing six hours walking distance is damaged. Which means that if you want to get your own troops out of the way, more careful planning and execution is required.

Also, the latest balance patch has turned things a tad too easy. The undead armies are now shrinking over time. The 150 trolls from earlier are now only 80, and they only had a tiny battle to fight. Most of them just died. Err, re-died. And two days into the game, they're the only noteworthy undead army near me (and on the whole map, I think) left. Sure, this is the 'first battle' map and I'm sure it's supposed to be easy, but those shambling immortals are pushovers. They don't even benefit from fortifications (I think that's by design). And they move randomly. Another zombie scenario used as an excuse to not even implement the most basic AI.

We should definitely wait for this to mature a bit more before we do a community game.

What's known about the pricing structure? Ten bucks for a monthly key seems a bit steep. What do you get for that? Can you host custom games for non-paying friends? In all game modes?

[Jordy...]

I think so yea, you can host custom games add friends or whatever, not too much though imo. And I agree, I liked those zombies more when they we're harder, I mean they say no group ever won, but I doubt one group ever fully cooperated..

The things you mention though about the trollz, it sounds like music to my ears, sure, careful planning might be required, but that's exactly what I'll like.

[bert_the_turtle]

It's not the planning that's bugging me, I enjoy that too. It's the timing of the execution Let's see if I can hit those zombie trolls without hitting the neutral troops they're marching towards. Though, at least, time ticks are only once an hour and it only matters that you fire your commands in the right tick.

[Jordy...]

See! That's a good thing, then it's all doable, and your RL schedule is just another part you have to take into consideration when you're planning your attacks!

We really should get into a game together, it'll be fun.

[bert_the_turtle]

Possibly, but only next year. I definitely won't have the proper time otherwise.

I did manage to only hit the enemy troops, but the game doesn't actually show which armies are going to be affected by a range spell. Turns out the time window for the stomp thing is 6 hours exclusive, which means 5 hours.

Next bizarreness: The Goblin Assassins. Their special ability is that for 12 hours, they can avoid all direct combat. If they have an encounter, they strike once (basically with the full force they'd hit in a regular fight) and then run off. So far, so good. But: you can order them to turn around immediately. So if you bother to log in every hour for 12 hours straight, you can make them strike 12 times, which should be enough to cut down everything camped at a single site.

Double pack! The Hobgoblins. They can, at nominal cost, up nearby goblin armies by 1/5th of their own strength. Each goblin army, if I'm not mistaken. That means: if you're patient, you camp your hobgoblins near a goblin village, the village spawns small goblin mobs as quickly as possible, and the hobgoblins use their boost thing while being constantly reinforced. Your total force is going to grow with the third power of time. If you want mobility on top of that (or if I'm wrong), you still can get an army growing with time squared (and with some humans at your hobgoblin source, you can reinforce them as quickly as your income allows). Kind of overpowered.

Go go goblins!

[Jordy...]

Damn you're really digging into this, I stopped playing shortly after your earlier comment. But yea, let's definitely get into a game together next year.


And happy new year and christmas to you!

[bert_the_turtle]

Ok, I'm back to my regular online activity level. Actually managed to squeeze a game in and win it, too. Turns out one of my complaints is fixed (the trade envoy timer), one is offset by another bit of design (the overpowered when micromanaged assassins don't give you honor for stealth killing zombies, making that attack only useful against neutrals or enemy kings), another one doesn't matter (the zombies are still too weak, so the cubic growth trick with hobgoblins and goblin hordes kicks in too late to be useful). The by far too weak zombies from the first game were actually due to it being in 'easy' mode. Duh.

Does anyone beside me and Jordy want to join in? If yes, we should probably go for a game that starts around 22:00 UTC, tax hour is a time you usually want to be online at. Start date doesn't matter for me.

[Cooper42]

I'm in my second blight game. Finding it way too easy, but fun at least. I'm up for a game.

[Cooper42]

Ok, it seems to me that whoever gets centaurs early on and makes best use of them basically wins. Given how easy the game currently is, whoevergets to the blight first will gain most honour.

Centaurs double the speed of an army of -any- size, regardless the size of the centaur army. They do this for 12 hours.

Simply follow each of your armies with small centaur armies and you will quickly over-run the blight before it becomes a problem, and always beat other players to honour that comes from killing zombies.

The Green player on the first map seems best placed for this. Having very early access to centaurs and being right in the middle of the map. Green has come 1st or 2nd in all games I have played.

[bert_the_turtle]

Yeah, that's something of a concern. Green won the first game I played, essentially just running over the undead with one centaur army. The second game, the first two spots were GOBLINS! with the greens taking 3rd and 4th, but I only managed to win because I massively bought units in the south, near the zombies, something which isn't possible any more. Humans currently have nothing going for them, and the dwarf defense bonus is irrelevant at the current difficulty level. Hobgoblins at least have armor and Trolls get double dice rolls, which makes it easier to build up an experienced army with both.

[bert_the_turtle]

Hey, they actually fixed some of the flaws. Especially the difficulty, there are now several available, with hard being properly suicidal. I say we do this. Monday evening (for me), around 6 PM GMT, I'll post the link for the fresh and, at that time, mostly empty hard game here (they only start a new one every few hours, probably when the last one filled up, so it's hard to pinpoint an exact time. Unless someone wants to actually pay for a key and start a custom game.) Everyone interested joins, then we get slaughtered gruesomely.

[Jordy...]

Sounds fun, let's go suicide!

[zjoere]

I'm currently playing my first game so I'm not really good at it yet but if I'm online when you post the link I'll join in. And probably get slaugthered. But it will be for your amusement